No room for mistakes

Friday

Oct 31, 2008 at 12:01 AMOct 31, 2008 at 10:39 AM

After hearing what Tress thinks about "guru" offensive coordinators -- doesn't like them -- and the possibility of giving up play-calling -- not gonna happen -- it's clear that no fundamental change will be coming to the OSU offense, even if JT changes offensive coordinators next season.

With that in mind, I return to a topic covered ad nauseum several years ago when the Buckeyes' offense was struggling to keep up. (What a surprise.) Let's call it Margin of Error.

It goes like this: When your offensive philosophy is to always keep things so close to the, ahem, vest, then you need to play near flawless football to win, which explains why Tressel obsesses about playing mistake-free. There's no other way for OSU to play if it expects to win. To me that's a problem, given that humans make mistakes. More than one a day, in fact.

I'll use the Penn State game as an example. Much of what I've heard since the 13-6 loss goes along the lines of ..."Everyone needs to relax, because if Pryor had not fumbled, we wouldn't be complaining about the play-calling ... yada, yada, blah, blah, blah ... and we'd be talking about another NC."

First off...that kind of logic is silly. I could just as easily say, "And if the ref doesn't throw the flag in the 2002 national championship game the Buckeyes still don't have a national title since 1968." If "ifs and buts were fruits and nuts" you know what I mean?

More than that, however, when you play conservatively on offense, then the MOE (margin of error) becomes razor thin. One turnover. One bad punt. One blown assignment on defense is all it takes to lose a game and splatter a season.

And when the MOE remains that small and the Buckeyes play real, live good teams like LSU, Florida and USC, well, there's no making up for it.

So all the hand-wringing about play-calling isn't just because fans want to be entertained in Big 12 style but because they want to see their Buckeyes win.

Yes, Pryor's fumble hurt, but it didn't have to kill.

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